The Ball
" |image = S1e8a Buster begging before everyone.jpg |caption = Wander, Sylvia, Beeza and the fleas looking up at Buster. |season = 1 |production = 108b |broadcast = 13 |story = Lauren Faust Craig McCracken Dave Thomas Ben Joseph Tim McKeon Eddie Trigueros Alex Kirwan Johanna Stein Greg White |writer = Ben Joseph |storyboards = Ed Baker Eddie Trigueros |directed = Eddie Trigueros |us = January 10, 2014 | xd = April 1, 2014 |international = March 2, 2014 (Disney XD Brazil and Latin America) |pairedwith = "The Bounty" | iTunes = }} Wander and Sylvia's spa day is cut short when a bunch of fleas have to flee their planet because a giant dog, Buster, has come back to attack it, assuming it's a ball, like what happened to the past planets the citizens lived on. Wander helps the fleas take on Buster by coming up with plans of his own to chase him away, but all doesn't go well and they might have to flee after all. Episode Summary Wander and Sylvia are enjoying a spa day on Ballzeria 9 with Beeza and her flea colony. Eventually they hear the sound of chimes, which means they have to flee the planet forever, thus ending their fun early. Wander wonders why they're fleeing, and she explains they're doing so because their planet is about to be destroyed. Prior to this, they lived on eight other planets, and every time they did so, they heard the Armageddon Chimes, which is a sign that someone has come to destroy them. Sylvia wonders who the destroyer is, and Beeza reveals it's a dog they used to call the "Worldbuster", now most of them simply called him "Buster". The fleas begin rushing to their ship to flee the planet, but Wander stops them and gives an inspirational speech of facing their fears over Buster head-on, and invites them to stop him with a plan. Moments later, the gang constructs a huge capsule which they launch into space and transform it into a giant mechanical bone which Buster follows after. Everyone celebrates their victory, but it does not last long as Buster returns and drops the giant bone onto the planet. Wander wonders why the plan didn't work and Sylvia says, "We threw the dog a bone, and he fetched it!" Buster begins drooling (which Beeza dubs "The Sticky Rains of Terror"), causing the fleas to flee once more. Sylvia suggests they leave, but Wander refuses and tells the fleas he has another plan. Soon after this, Everyone is lined up in front of Buster. Wander has the fleas take out a bunch of whistles and blow them to shoo Buster off. The whistle sounds are inaudible to them, but not to Buster who is annoyed. The plan does not work though, as after this, Buster begins barking back, causing everything to blow all over the place. Then Buster begins licking everything with his tongue. Wander tells the fleas he has another plan: trash. Following his orders, the fleas find as much trash as they can and throw it at Buster's tongue, briefly stopping him to let everyone celebrate. He eventually resumes licking, hence the fact that dogs love trash, according to Sylvia. Buster starts to chew the planet to pieces, and Sylvia immediately takes him to the ship where the fleas are waiting. After boarding, Sylvia frantically tells the ship to take off, and it does just that. After that, Buster continues chewing the planet, and eventually, it breaks apart, destroying it forever. Wander sadly watches this and Sylvia tells him that even though they didn't get a win this time, sometimes if a problem is so big, they just have to flee. Wander is still not impressed by this comment and knows there's only way to stop the problem once and for all. He instantly runs to the captain's room and throws the captain out, taking control of the ship. Despite Sylvia's warnings that they have to flee, Wander frantically says that's what he's doing and facing the problem head-on. He dodges Buster's chews and flies onto his back, eventually crashing the ship. Everyone exits the ship onto Buster's back, where Sylvia is angered at what Wander did and now that the ship has crashed, the fleas have no place to live. But upon realizing the landscape and after the fleas admire it, Beeza thanks Wander for the fact that he has found them a permanent home. Wander replies to this by stating they wanted to flee, but it turns out that all they really needed to do was in fact, flea. Later as Wander and Sylvia are leaving, Wander explains the flea pun to Sylvia. Soon they hear a meowing and turn to see another planet that looks like a yarn ball, possibly a sign that there is a similar problem to earlier. Wander smiles while Sylvia frowns in disgust, and the scene fades to black. Transcript Credits Buster has fun with the ball. Gallery Quotes Trivia *Lord Hater and Peepers don't appear in this episode. *The planets all oddly look like tennis balls so this explains why Buster kept on destroying them while trying to chew them. *Beeza is the first named character Wander and Sylvia help to be female. *The planet's inhabitants are shown very uninterested in saving their own planet and worrying about their own future life. *This is one of few episodes in which Sylvia appears in person but her name is not said once. *The title refers to Buster mistaking the planet as a ball and constantly destroying it. *This is the first episode to end on a possible cliffhanger, as told by Wander and Sylvia hearing a cat's meow from a yarn planet in the distance, leading Wander to smile and Sylvia to frown in annoyance, as a possible reference to the fact that the yarn planet is their next stop in their usual space travels. *Based on Beeza's flashback, the eight other planets the fleas lived on were also named Ballzeria, numbered 1 through 8. *A kamikaze is a Japanese aircraft used in World War II used to make suicidal crashes. *This is the first time Wander's helpings actually fail to succeed. Continuity *Second time Wander drives a ship uncontrollably. ("The Prisoner") *Third time Wander becomes crazy ("The Fugitives", "The Box") *Third episode where a planet is named. ("The Bad Guy", "The Troll") *At the very end of the episode, the last line of If You Wander Over Yonder is parodied as a cat's meowing. *Second episode where a planet's inhabitants are relocated to a better place ("The Good Deed"). *Second episode in which the episode's planet or location is destroyed ("The Pet"). **This is, however, the first time a planet is destroyed. *Second time Wander's helpings eventually cause something bad to happen ("The Good Deed"). Errors *At the beginning of the episode, Wander is not wearing his hat. When he and Sylvia follow the fleas wondering why they're fleeing, Wander's hat appears on his head out of nowhere. *Buster seems to change appearances several times throughout the episode. *When Wander shows his blueprint for the first plan he has his own hard hat with a star on it, but later while he is helping out, he is wearing his regular hat. *After Sylvia scolds Buster for barking at everyone, the inside of Wander's hat is dark green instead of black. The inside is also dark green when Sylvia is about to jump into the ship, and for a split second when Wander runs off to tell the fleas he has one more plan. *When Wander and Sylvia's bubble fountains turn off, they splash into water and watch the fleas leave while dripping wet, but when zoomed out there is clearly no water in the pod their fountains are spraying out of. *During Wander and Sylvia's spa day at the beginning, when zoomed out there are buildings behind them but when in close up, the buildings are gone. *When Wander is shocked at the fact the fleas are leaving, his goatee is transparant. Later when he walks up to Beeza to ask what's going on, his goatee is normal again. *When Sylvia says "It's time to go" her mouth moves as if she were saying something else. *When everyone is seeing the sound waves from Buster's barking, Beeza suddenly disappears when the third wave comes by. Also at the same time, Sylvia's arms are missing. *During some of the fleas' running sequences, one of the fleas has black hair instead of teal (blue when Buster's shadow is cast). *Before Wander says "New plan!", his upper hair strand is superimposed under his left eye. *When we see the destroyed other planets, they are near the Ballzeria 9 planet in the flashback. However, whenever Buster is shown, the ruins of the other planets are gone, though they might have disappeared over time. *When the fleas turn to leave the Relaxitorium, suitcases appear with them out of nowhere. *At the beginning of Wander's second plan, Wander is facing right (our left) as the camera pulls out revealing everyone. But when everyone uses their whistles on Buster, he is facing left (our right). *When Buster brings back the giant bone, he is shown to face over the planet when viewed from Wander's perspective. When the camera cuts to space however, Buster runs to the planet. *When Sylvia jumps onto the ship, for one second Wander's upper hair strand is not outlined. *When Wander dashes down the hallway after announcing there's only one way to save the fleas, his right arm becomes detached from his body for a few frames. *While the flea captain is being hoisted off the ground by Wander, he says "Come on, what are you --" but his mouth moves without it opening. Allusions *'We Can Do It!/Rosie the Riveter': When Sylvia punching the rivets, she strikes the same pose of the woman on this famous wartime propaganda poster, along with wearing a similar bandanna. ** When Sylvia flexes her arm, the distinctive sound effect from The Powerpuff Girls can be heard, another series by Craig McCracken. * Ghostbusters - Beeza mentions Buster used to be called the "Worldbuster", which references the popular ghost hunting team and franchise. *Buster attacking the planet may be a reference to The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which an entire alien battle fleet is eaten by a small dog. *''Spot'' - Buster bears an uncanny resemblance to this popular children's dog. *'World War II' - Many of the scenes of everyone following Wander's plans reference World War II. *''The Flintstones'' - The sound effect of Wander and Sylvia running up to Beeza is the same sound used whenever Fred revved up his Flintmobile. Production Information *This is the first episode of 2014. *Originally announced to air on January 12, 2014. *This episode aired as part of Disney Channel's "JaNEWary". *This episode aired first, and its partner episode "The Bounty" aired 2 weeks later. However when shown together and in production order, the order of the episodes is reversed. *In France, this episode is called "La balle de Buster". (The Ball of Buster / Buster's Ball) Making it the first episode title with someone's name in it, even though it is only in France, so far. International premieres *March 2nd, 2014 (Disney XD Latin America and Disney XD Brazil) *March 29th, 2014 (Disney XD Poland) *May 31st, 2014 (Disney Channel Japan) *June 21st, 2014 (Disney Channel Hungary) Cast *Jack McBrayer as Wander *April Winchell as Sylvia, Additional Voices *Keith Ferguson as Hater, Additional Voices *Tom Kenny as Peepers, Additional Voices *Tara Strong as Beeza, Additional Voices *Corey Burton as Captain, Additional Voices * Bill Farmer as Buster :: ♦ designates a character that did not appear in this episode :: :: During the end credits of the Ball, Ron Howard's Death is on it, it says: :: TO OUR FRIEND RON :: WHO GAVE A MERMAID HER VOICE :: AND A BEAST HIS SOUL :: WILL BE FOREVER GREATFUL :: :: RON HOWARD :: 1954-2014. Category:Wander